After an amazing win for Turkiye and a career performance from Ercan Osmani, who scored 28 points, Turkiye head coach Ergin Ataman joked that NBA teams will now try to sign him from Efes to challenge Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had the worst performance of the tournament against him, scoring just 12 points.
Turkiye delivered one of the best performances in EuroBasket, crushing Greece in the semifinal to advance to its first EuroBasket final in 24 years.
One of the most important reasons for this incredible win was Turkiye's forward Ercan Osmani.
He scored a career-high 28 points on 5/7 two-point and 6/8 three-point shooting, added 6 rebounds, and was a primary defender on Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished with the worst performance of the tournament, scoring just 12 points.
After the game, Turkiye's head coach Ergin Ataman praised Osmani and joked that his team, Anadolu Efes, may now have trouble keeping him from going to the NBA.
"I think Osmani made a great difference against Giannis," Ataman said in the press conference. "I don't know if my friend from Efes will have trouble with this, as many NBA teams will try to sign Osmani to stop Giannis, but I think he is very happy at Efes."
Ataman also explained the game plan for defending Giannis, claiming it's easier to defend the Milwaukee Bucks star in FIBA basketball.
"We talked before the game, also in the press conference, that for Giannis, what I saw was that we should regularly play aggressive defense. Everyone stepped back from Giannis to force him into taking jumpshots," Ataman said.
"We denied him and always forced him to make a strong dribble inside, trapping him with Sengun and Osmani, who were always aggressive in denying him. Every time he tried to beat Osmani, Sengun came to help inside.
"He never found space. I said it in the press conference: it's not the NBA. In European basketball, if you prepare with this kind of paint defense and your players are aggressive—closing and opening—it's successful. It's not very difficult to stop him," Ataman concluded.
Turkiye Dominated Greece Like We’ve Never Seen Before!
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